Jim Ingraham: Jimmy Haslam could make this Browns coach search different

What makes this search any different from any of their numerous other scavenger hunts since 1999?

Well, this time the Browns have an owner who wants to be the owner. That's about it. But at least they've got that going for them.

Maybe.

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What the Browns don't have going for them is that on Monday one-third of the NFL teams that didn't make the playoffs, including the Browns, fired their head coaches.

The Bears even pulled the plug on Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season. That would be a mouth-watering record to the Browns, but it wasn't enough for the Bears to remain all Lovie dovey.

Seven of the 20 teams that didn't make the playoffs canned their coaches on Monday. The teams with five of the first eight picks in the NFL Draft are all looking for new coaches.

In other words, there is lots of competition for the available head coaching candidates. What makes the NFL's most inept franchise think it can land the best and brightest from that coaching pool?

"We think this is a great job," said Jimmy Haslam, owner of a team that has a record of 9-23 (.281) over the last two years and 23-57 (.287) over the last five.

None of that mess is Haslam's doing, but he's on the clock now. The first coach he hires will be the Browns' seventh coach in the last 14 years.

On Monday Haslam and CEO Joe Banner officially announced the firing of coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert, and then outlined for the fans and media, in only general and generic terms, the strategy for hiring the replacements.

Fans and media: Been there, done that. Heard this, heard that.

"We're aware this has been a carousel," said Haslam, correctly sensing the community's hit-the-snooze-button-and-roll-over reaction to still another one of THESE Browns news conferences.

"Our job," Haslam said, "is to find the right people and bring some stability to these positions."

It starts with the coach, and in response to a question about all the competition for the best of what's out there, Haslam said, "We're confident. This is a good situation. We're not worried."

Check back in about two years, which has been the average shelf life of a typical Browns coach since 1999, to see if the Browns should have been worried.

For now, Haslam and Banner say they will leave no stone unturned in their search to find Mr. Right, who can lead the team out of the NFL's gravel pit.

Heard that before, too. Right?

Jimmy/Joe also said the coach will be hired before the general manager, which conjures up images of an encore of the Eric Mangini/George Kokinis debacle in which Mangini basically was allowed to hire his own boss.

That, however, occurred on the watch of the previous owner.

Meet the new boss, who seems almost serenely confident that he can find the next Jim Harbaugh, and when asked what the No.1 quality he is looking for in his new coach, never missed a beat.

"Leadership," he barked with such terse rapidity that it sounded like the quality he found most lacking in the previous office holder.

This is a big moment for Haslam. It's his first chance to prove to Browns fans and his NFL peers that he's more than just a well-dressed, well-spoken, glad-handing billionaire.

This is not like hiring a new night manager for the Flying J franchise in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Haslam is looking for the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns. They play football games on national TV, and everything. Well, once in a while, anyway.

Haslam has already passed the eye test as the Browns' new owner. He looks, acts and talks the part to such a polished degree that compared to his predecessor he's a jet engine-propelled wind tunnel of fresh air.

Now, however, it's time to start delivering the goods. Haslam and Banner both say they are confident that neither their win-loss record, their team's decades of futility, nor the makeup of their current roster are leave-me-alone deal breakers for any candidate they choose to pursue.

"We're extremely confident," said Banner "that we can go after the top guys out there."

The stakes, again, are high _ higher than usual, even, because this is Haslam's chance to prove that, as the Browns' new owner, he is more than just a pretty checkbook.

A whiff on his first coaching hire triggers another round of here-we-go-again eye-rolling from a weary fan base and, two years from now, the start of another coach search.